This invention is directed to a portable stove suitable for burning charcoal or other solid fuel in an efficient manner.
Charcoal is utilized as a fuel for cooking and heating by a large segment of the world's population. In many under developed third world urban centers modern fuel distribution means such as electricity, natural gas or propane are not available. The populace of these urban centers generally utilize charcoal as their sole fuel source because it is available in a sufficient quantity at an affordable price. Charcoal derived from real wood burns with a very hot flame. It is quite distinct from so called "charcoal briquettes" that include large amounts of ash, sometimes exceeding 20% ash.
In our U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,597, we described a biomass stove that is particularly suited for utilizing biomass as its fuel. The dampers and air passageways of this stove allow for efficient burning of biomass including small pieces of wood, grasses, dung and other such fuels. A further biomass stove is described in our U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,751. These two stoves are both very efficient. Further, they both can be constructed utilizing hand labor and unsophisticated tools with materials that are readily available in most areas of the world. However, they are more suited for the combustion of biomass as compared to charcoal and thus are more suited for rural users as opposed to urban users since, while charcoal is generally available to the urban user, biomass is not.
With ever increasing shrinkage of our planet's fuel supplies, including biomass and charcoal formed therefrom, efficient usage of fuel is important for all of the earth's populace. Aside from a conservation standpoint, fuel efficiency is also very important from an economic standpoint since there are large segments of the world's population who are very poor.
While the human race has made great technological strides in many areas, for a great number of the world's population needs are very basic. These basic needs include the need for high efficiency cooking stoves that are essentially low tech in construction and do not require exotic or unavailable material for such construction.